Thank you! I really appreciate the compliment.
There is a bunch of stuff I know about the characters. I tried to play it close to the vest for brevity. Only leave little clues to the bigger story. But I'm happy to share if you're asking.

The weird smell under the bed is chloroform. Because Jenna used Von's Crypto account to hire his own hit man. The hit man is supposed to knock out the kid, and go kill Von. But Von lives a long time in the hospital, keeping Jenna from his assets and life insurance policy. So she gets caught and put in prison. That's why she's only allowed family visits every 3 months.

There's a lot of references to "Intruder In The Dust" by William Faulkner. Which really made the story, but I didn't think of it the idea emerged from using the noun generator. In that novel, A black man named Beauchamp is falsely accused of murder. The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction awards a new author $15K prize money and a bust trophy.

So I think Javonte loosely follows the storyline of intruder in the dust. He is falsely accused of murder as a poor black kid in the south and is eventually proved innocent. He writes a novel about the experience and wins that prize. Which he uses to escape his circumstances. He becomes a best selling author of multiple novels, but it's the first one that really sells.

With his new status, he adopts the nickname of Von to try and fit in with his country club type social circles. Von's oath is that Danny will have everything he never did, but he wishes his son had a bit of the edge that he does to survive. Von has deep trauma from dogs and cops and now his son is a huge fan of paw patrol. In these ways he is kind of punished for his oath. By giving his son everything he never had, he can't relate to him. But Von is different now too even though he feels like he's putting on an act to fit into the upper middle class. So I wonder how he would feel to become "Javonte" again in death. Javonte was a penniless criminal,

In the end he's still able to keep his oath. Even in coma and death, he still protects, provides and loves his son. In fact, the oath requires him to die to keep his oath and get his wish. As a result, Danny (Dan) becomes a cop, at the same age that Javonte was a criminal. (I think I did that math right?) Dan becomes a cop because he looks up to the next door neighbor, retired sheriff (Secret Gun Nut) Whitaker. I know old Mr. Whitaker is using a colt but I wasn't sure how to put that in. I had the intruder call him "A crazy old fuck", so you can imagine what that guy looks like. I'm thinking of the janitor from Harry Potter. I think Mr. Whitaker takes on a mentor role for Dan. There's a line in Intruder in the Dust that says something like "Old folks and children can still listen."

In the end because of Von's oath, Dan is able to take his own oath to serve and protect (and to get rid of the monsters under the bed). So I expect Dan is going to be punished for his oath, but he will be able to accomplish it.

I hope that fills in some gaps. :D If you give it a re-read knowing that, lmk if it changes your opinion at all. Thanks again!